Once upon a time, this blog was going to be all about my pet bird, when I got one. But I never did get that bird. So, now this blog is about the beautiful, curious things that keep me in a near-constant state of happy distraction. Ironically, many people find these writings when they wonder what "peristerophobia" means. It's a fear of pigeons. I've made a bird blog after all.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Fish heads for your Wednesday.

At dinner on Friday, my excellent poet friend and I regaled everyone with a performance of the Barnes and Barnes song "Fish Heads," which I was so tickled to find she knew. I have finally remembered to go hunt out my own copy of "Fish Heads," after all these years. (My brother and I used to watch the Doctor Demento countdown every time it was on MTV, because "Fish Heads" was always the #1 video.)

For those of you who don't know the song, here's a taste, as it were, though one cannot get the full dementedness of the song from its lyrics alone. However, it reads not unlike Seussian absurd. Imagine many of these lines (chorus in particular) delivered in falsetto (a mid-post postscript, from Wednesday afternoon: go here, or to iTunes, for a sound sample).

I took a fish head out to see a movie.Didn't have to pay to get it in. (chorus)

They can't play baseball.They don't wear sweaters.They're not good dancers.They don't play drums. (chorus)

[all in a rush:] Roly poly fish heads are never seen sipping cappuccino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women. Yeaaahhh.

(chorus)(repeat)(repeat again)(repeat, sans music)Yeah.

And there you have it. An anthem of my youth. If you only have time to check out one song I've referenced tonight, I wouldn't have this be the one (go for Hem!), but if you have the spare time, it's worth digging this one out, simply for the unbelievable weirdness of the thing.

source of tonight's image: I've gone easy on those who may feel squeamish about seeing actual fish heads; tonight's image is obviously of fake fish heads, from the Gallery of Functional Art.

4 Comments:

Do you have a copy of the song for real? I almost bought a Dr. Demento mix CD recently but then never made it to the checkout screen (my Internet window shopping is legendary here at work--I fill carts for the pleasure of pretending I can buy whatever I want but never follow through)> i also LOVE seeing Hem on your list--hey are absolutely one of my favorites, and I can't get enough of their version of "Jackson." I discovered them through Paste magazine, which you must run out and subscribe to if you haven't already.

I do indeed! I got it from iTunes the other night, right before I wrote the post. Most of the lyrics I'd committed to memory long ago, but I couldn't have done them all off the top of my head. And so yes, the song is available.

I don't read Paste, but I will look for it at ye local bookstore, which has an exceptional magazine collection. And I do love Hem's "Jackson"; being someone who knows nothing about Johnny Cash, I was startled, to say the least, when I heard the song in Walk the Line. Who knew. I mean, besides everyone. The new Hem album is wonderful, because it has great stuff from the previous albums, performed live without the disappointment that I've come to feel is almost inevitable in live albums, and then it's got some other great songs, too. I love "Radiation Vibe" and also the last track on the album (the one with the harmonized humming). Utterly lovely.

When I listened to the Blanche samples earlier in the winter, I suspected that you might also be a Hem fan. They're coming to Detroit in April, you know.

About Me

Annie Dillard could have been writing about me when she said (of herself), "I like the slants of light; I'm a collector." Or Willem de Kooning: "I'm like a slipping glimpser." And don't forget Brenda Ueland: "I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten--happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another." But the Beastie Boys might have said it best: "When it comes to panache, I can't be beat." There's a reason I wear a ring that says Badass.